US sales: November 2016, brands

US car sales were 1,378,330 in November, over a little over 10,000 units more than in October. More importantly, however, this marked a 3.6 percent increase on November 2015, the first monthly increase since July 2016. The higher demand was mainly driven by two factors: higher incentives offered by carmakers, and strong demand for trucks. Overall, truck sales rose 8.6 percent compared to 2015, while car sales fell by 3.9 percent. This performance also marked a return to positive year-to-date growth for the market, though with sales in 2016 up by only 0.1 percent compared to 2015 it’s anyone’s guess whether 2016 will be a new record year for the industry, or whether that distinction will remain with 2015.

Highlights:

• Chevrolet enjoyed a healthy 8.1 percent rise in sales, though it had to relinquish the top spot it grabbed in October as market-leader Ford returned to positive growth after a four-month sales slide
• The other top 5 all enjoyed strong sales growth, particularly fourth-placed Honda (7.9 percent) and fifth-placed Nissan (8.0 percent)
• Woes at Jeep continued as sales slumped by 12.3 percent, the first double-digit sales fall for the brand in a long time
• In fact, Jeep was the only brand which saw sales fall in the top 10, with double-digit sales growth being recorded by eight-placed Kia (sales up 15.3 percent), ninth-placed Subaru (sales up 11.4 percent) and tenth-placed GMC (sales up 14.1 percent)
• Things at FCA are looking decidedly gloomy: overall sales are down 14.1 percent due to poor performance by Jeep, Dodge (sales down 20.7 percent), Chrysler (sales down 46.8 percent) and Fiat (sales down by 14.5 percent), with the only bright-spots being the ever-continuing good performance at Ram (sales up 12.0 percent) and, to a small extent, Maserati (sales up 27.3 percent)
• One brand that should be very happy with its November performance is VW, whose sales rose by 24.2 percent, almost returning it to its pre-dieselgate sales result in November 2014, when it sold only around 2,000 care more than it did this year – not bad for a tarnished brand offering a range of rapidly-aging cars
• Further good news for the VAG group came as Audi extended its streak of sales increases to 85 months, with its 2.5 percent growth rate higher than its closest luxury competitors: the 0.3 percent rise in sales at Mercedes-Benz, the 1.0 percent drop at Lexus, the 5.1 percent drop at Acura or the huge 18.2 percent sales fall at BMW
• The smaller luxury brands did better: sales were up by 3.6 percent at Infiniti, 19.1 percent at Lincoln, 11.9 percent at Volvo, 23.9 percent at Porsche, 105.9 percent at Bentley and 217.5 percent at Jaguar

Brand ranking November 2016

Monthly

YTD

#	Model	Nov’16	Nov’15	Δ	#	2016	2015	Δ
a1	Ford	187,012	178,971	4.5%	a1	2,267,839	2,250,552	0.8%
a2 (1)	Chevrolet	169,675	156,907	8.1%	a2	1,895,607	1,909,839	-0.7%
a3 (1)	Toyota	168,425	158,475	6.3%	a3	1,845,557	1,890,730	-2.4%
a4	Honda	111,308	103,197	7.9%	a4	1,327,069	1,256,635	5.6%
a5	Nissan	103,024	95,389	8.0%	a5	1,298,412	1,217,151	6.7%
a6	Jeep	67,285	76,689	-12.3%	a6	839,433	775,136	8.3%
a7	Hyundai	65,507	60,007	9.2%	a7	712,205	702,094	1.4%
a8 (1)	Kia	52,504	45,553	15.3%	a8	592,891	563,281	5.3%
a9 (1)	Subaru	51,308	46,070	11.4%	a9	548,470	521,175	5.2%
b10	GMC	49,113	43,039	14.1%	b11 (1)	482,803	495,150	-2.5%
b11 (1)	Ram	42,511	37,952	12.0%	b10 (2)	486,910	432,128	12.7%
b12 (1)	Dodge	34,075	42,955	-20.7%	b12 (1)	472,106	475,163	-0.6%
b13	Mercedes-Benz	32,927	32,813	0.3%	b13	338,081	332,858	1.6%
b14 (3)	VW	29,672	23,882	24.2%	b15 (1)	280,749	314,162	-10.6%
b15	Lexus	29,050	29,340	-1.0%	b14 (2)	289,143	299,671	-3.5%
b16 (2)	BMW	26,189	32,003	-18.2%	b16 (1)	280,177	312,571	-10.4%
b17 (1)	Mazda	22,041	22,732	-3.0%	b17 (1)	266,879	287,505	-7.2%
b18 (2)	Buick	18,530	15,960	16.1%	b19	209,293	199,816	4.7%
b19	Audi	17,118	16,700	2.5%	b20	186,735	181,637	2.8%
b20 (1)	Cadillac	15,326	13,390	14.5%	b21 (1)	150,724	153,587	-1.9%
b21 (5)	Chrysler	14,518	27,275	-46.8%	b18 (1)	223,187	294,031	-24.1%
b22 (1)	Infiniti	12,112	11,694	3.6%	b23	120,325	117,916	2.0%
b23 (1)	Acura	11,616	12,244	-5.1%	b22 (1)	142,003	158,827	-10.6%
b24	Lincoln	9,429	7,918	19.1%	b24	97,935	89,519	9.4%
b25	Volvo	7,723	6,902	11.9%	b26	75,382	61,667	22.2%
b26	Mitsubishi	6,896	6,772	1.8%	b25	87,882	85,843	2.4%
b27	Land Rover	5,659	6,539	-13.5%	b27	66,337	61,402	8.0%
b28	Porsche	5,513	4,450	23.9%	b29	50,169	47,775	5.0%
b29	Mini	4,507	4,444	1.4%	b30 (2)	47,691	53,846	-11.4%
b30 (4)	Jaguar	3,381	1,065	217.5%	b32 (1)	27,528	13,282	107.3%
b31 (1)	Fiat	2,415	2,826	-14.5%	b31 (1)	30,578	38,200	-20.0%
b32 (1)	Tesla	2,250	2,156	4.4%	b33 (1)	24,475	22,411	9.2%
b33	Maserati	1,380	1,084	27.3%	b34	10,836	10,259	5.6%
b34 (1)	Smart	563	662	-15.0%	b35	5,012	6,752	-25.8%
b35 (1)	Bentley	387	188	105.9%	b36	2,206	2,084	5.9%
b36 (4)	Scion	170	1,702	-90.0%	b28 (3)	50,576	37,884	33.5%
b37	Rolls-Royce	102	99	3.0%	b37	1,118	1,079	3.6%
b38	Lamborghini	86	84	2.4%	b38	946	924	2.4%
b39	Alfa Romeo	23	34	-32.4%	b39	468	599	-21.9%